April 30, 2015 NEW THIS WEEK
● Getting Started with the New IAM Service Login
● Schoolnet 16.3 Upgrade Postponement Update ● Welcome to the New School & District Spotlight Featuring NCTIES Panelist Debra Simons
● Teacher Spotlight—Melissa Partin on Creating Relevant Standards ● New Home Base Maintenance Update
● Are You Using Canvas? ● Schoolnet Data Sources—Summary Statistics and Student List ● Home Base Weekly Webinar Series ● Weekly Webinars on Schoolnet and OpenClass in April and May ● PowerSchool—Q & A Open Forum Webinars ● New Educator Effectiveness Online Modules Released! ● New Summer Opportunities—Facilitated Online Courses IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ● What the Best North Carolina Teachers Do: A Video Series ● Governor’s Teacher Network: Teacher­Leaders Sharing Research Across NC ● New District­to­District Sharing Feature is Now Available! ● Schoolnet Training Site NEW THIS WEEK Getting Started with the New IAM Service Login Logging into PowerSchool, Schoolnet, NCEES, and OpenClass is about to be streamlined. The new NCEdCloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) Service accounts will provide teachers, students and staff one login to these four resources, plus the new LMS (Instructure Canvas) and Learning Object Repository, fulfilling the initial promise of one Home Base login. Home Base users have logged in through PowerSchool while awaiting the IAM Service’s implementation. That will no longer be necessary once the IAM Service is integrated. Between now and July 6, the date the new single sign­on goes live, please follow the latest IAM Service updates in the Biweekly Update. This will help you prepare for the login transition. NCEdCloud accounts are currently available, and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and Charter Schools can begin providing employees and students account access as soon as their rollout processes are in place. Account claiming should begin with key technical staff who would then request privileged roles through the Workflow process (like LEA Administrator, LEA Data Auditor or LEA Help Desk) Teachers and other employees would then claim their accounts followed by students receiving their usernames and passwords. Teachers are granted access to all their students’ accounts, giving them permission to assist students with logins and password changes. Here’s the Rollout Order and Key Points to Remember: 1. While users may claim their accounts any time between now and July 6, we urge the designated technology leaders (e.g.Tech Directors) to first Claim their accounts and then request the ​
LEA Administrator Role​
. (An “LEA Administrator” is the person identified by the school administrator/principal to have access to all staff, faculty and student accounts.) This gives technical and instructional management time to organize account claiming for their faculty and staff on a timeline best suited to each district’s or school’s calendar. 2. Once the technology leadership notifies the school’s staff and faculty to proceed, teachers may claim their own accounts. A Claim Account Video and a detailed description of the process are provided on the ​
Getting Started​
page of the IAM Service website. 3. Teachers will be notified by their LEA or Charter School leadership when to assign Student Accounts. 4. LEAs and Charter Schools may decide, at their own discretion, to allow grades 6­12 students to self­claim accounts, or to issue accounts directly to these students the same as grades K­5 (see:​
​
For Teachers and Staff​
on the IAM Website). 5. Starting July 6, students will access PowerSchool using a different URL, /student rather than /public, therefore, they will need to be provided with a new link, icon, "button" etc., to access PowerSchool (this will be LEA or Charter School dependent). 6. The /public URL will continue to be used by Parents to access the Parent Portal​
. Parent logins to PowerSchool will remain unchanged, as they will not be using the NCEdCloud IAM Service. 7. NOTE: Teachers that access NCEES for PD over the summer will use their IAM Service Account to access this resource. Users can login to the IAM Service at myncedcloud.org (after claiming their account) and click on the NCEES Icon which will be available starting July 6, or they can go directly to the NCEES URL (link) which will be published prior to July 6. Watch the​
​
Claim My Account​
Video to learn how to set up your UID username and password. For more information, visit the​
​
NCEdCloud IAM website​
and click​
​
Getting Started!​
Continue to follow the Biweekly Update for links and more instructions and the latest news about the new NCEdCloud IAM Service. Schoolnet 16.3 Upgrade Postponement Update Over the weekend of April 24­26, plans to upgrade the platform of the Home Base Instructional Improvement System(Schoolnet) from version 16.0 to version 16.3 were postponed. An issue related to the search functionality was discovered and the result would have greatly impacted performance of the Home Base system. The upgrade will be postponed until the Pearson team completes a root­cause analysis and resolves the issues. You can expect a progress communication providing you with a new 16.3 version release date following the ongoing improvements. Thank you for your patience. Welcome to the New School & District Spotlight! The ongoing collection of video stories from NC teachers for the Teacher Spotlight, inevitably drew submissions from School and District LEAs, causing some new considerations for a separate element of our educator­to­educator, web available sharing feature. We are pleased to announce a ​
School & District Spotlight,​
featuring School Administrators and Technical staff sharing their stories drawn from implementing Schoolnet. This week’s launch video is a panel discussion excerpted from the recent NCTIES Conference in the Raleigh Convention Center. Panelist Debra Simons shares how her district worked to link Wilson County with Schoolnet's available bank of instructional resources. School and District LEAs and Staff Members, let us know how Schoolnet is changing your school. Email us at: ​
Home Base Ready​
. Teacher Spotlight—Melissa Partin on ​
Creating Relevant Standards This week’s ​
Teacher Spotlight​
features Melissa Partin from Randolph County. Melissa Partin teaches Biology at Randolph Early College High School, and uses Schoolnet to measure student progress on standards throughout the year. The standards­tagged items available in the system help her to ensure that her assessments are focused on relevant standards and skills, while the reporting capabilities assist in tracking individual student progress. As a result, she is able to focus her review and remediation on the specific needs of her students. Ms. Partin also notes that the ability for teachers to share assessments can lead to meaningful collaboration and professional growth for all teachers. Let us know—how has Schoolnet changed your classroom? Classroom teachers, if you want us to feature your video and let us know how you use Schoolnet, please send an email to ​
Home Base Ready​
. New Home Base Maintenance Update A new outage page has been added to the Home Base website. You can find it through this link: ​
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/homebase/maintenance/​
. Not only can you look up the next maintenance outage here, but find alerts about what to do during an unexpected outage. ​
The next planned Home Base maintenance weekend is scheduled for Friday, May 15, through Monday, May 18. The system will shut down Friday at 5 p.m. Once maintenance is completed, a message will be sent to notify users that the system is up and available for use. NOTE: Remember to clear your computer’s cache and reboot your system following all outages. Clearing your cache deletes the temporary Internet files or history of the pages you’ve visited, allowing the updated features to appear. If you notice missing tabs or page components following a maintenance weekend, clear your cache before you contact the Home Base Support Center. Reboot your computer, and login to the Home Base system to see if the new components are visible. Home Base will be returned to service no later than 6 a.m., Monday morning. If a delay in bringing up the system should occur, users will be notified via NC SIS email, the new Maintenance Outage​
web page and the new ​
Home Base Alert on Twitter: http://bit.ly/1zVb561 Are You Using Canvas? If you’re one of the many Canvas users at schools and districts throughout North Carolina, you already use the Canvas LMS every day to simplify your classroom’s online experience including 1:1 and flipped classroom initiatives, blended learning, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and professional development. But if you haven’t tried Canvas yet, it’s a great time to see for yourself how it provides all the latest classroom technology you want without the complexity no one needs. The NCDPI signed a statewide contract to provide statewide pricing of Canvas to all LEAs and charter schools across the state. Administration and staff from several North Carolina districts contributed to the evaluation process, which resulted in a contract that includes implementation, training, course migration, and 24/7 support to any school or district that purchases Canvas. And since its important systems work together, the contract also promises that Canvas integrates with NC IAM, with NCLOR, and with PowerSchool. Rockingham schools participated in the pilot program and the results were positive. Listen to the ​
stories here ​
for how Canvas connected Rockingham students with the world! While you can visit the ​
Canvas website here to create a login, view how­to’s and integrate Canvas into your students’ learning experiences, keep in mind that the new IAM login includes access to Canvas. ​
LEAs and Charter Schools that decide to use Canvas will be logging in through the IAM Service. Schoolnet Data Sources—Summary Statistics and Student List Many educators across the state have become familiar with the Schoolnet reports available from the landing page once they sign in. However, there are a number of other simple options for finding data within the system. The student performance page, which can be accessed through the classrooms module, houses the benchmark dashboard, classroom test dashboard, item analysis reports, skills analysis reports, standards mastery reports, summary statistics, student list, and student analysis tabs. The summary statistics and student list tabs are two of the lesser used options on this page, but contain valuable data without the need to build custom reports. The summary statistics tab provides a view of individual student performance on a given assessment in comparison to all other students in the LEA who have taken the same assessment. This tab contains raw score, percentile score, score group, percentile, standard score, and other useful data points all from one easily accessible page. Educators can also view information about students from the student list tab. Demographic data, grades, benchmark results, and groups to which students have been assigned can be viewed by navigating the radio buttons within the tab. Teachers and those in leadership positions have found the benchmark option particularly useful, as it is a quick option to see student growth and achievement. Home Base Weekly Webinar Series The NCDPI invites you to take advantage of the weekly Home Base Webinar Series which invites system users to discuss timely topics. Webinars are designed to assist users with PowerSchool, Educator Evaluation/PD System plus Schoolnet and OpenClass on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. These webinars are always free and offer attendees the opportunity to learn about best practices, tips for success and new aspects of the system. Participants are also given a chance to ask questions and connect with experts. Upcoming topics include: ● Mid­Year Graduates in PowerSchool ● North Carolina Educator Evaluation System ● What does Quality Online PD look like? ● Creating Classroom Assessments in Schoolnet ● KPIs and Pre­Formatted Reports in Schoolnet For a full list of upcoming topics, webinar start times and registration links, please visit http://bit.ly/1E7iqV1​
and click ​
Webinars​
on the left navigation bar. The calendar is being updated daily with new training sessions so check back often. Specific upcoming webinars on Schoolnet, OpenClass and PowerSchool/PowerTeacher are also listed below. Weekly Webinars on Schoolnet and OpenClass in April and May The Schoolnet and OpenClass webinar series continues on Thursdays the remainder of the school year and features weekly sessions on each of the components within Schoolnet (Classrooms, Assessment Admin, and School and District Data) and on OpenClass. Webinar details are posted on the Home Base website at​
​
http://bit.ly/1KplNZ2 and​
​
http://bit.ly/1Dq1RU1​
. Please visit our ​
online calendar​
for future webinars. Below you will find the new topics for the upcoming April and May Schoolnet webinars. Date Time Topic Description Registratio
n 4/30/2015 3:30­4:30 Schoolnet – User Management Roles & Permissions This webinar will provide Webinar training in managing Registration user access in Schoolnet. You will learn how to review recently added and existing roles and permissions. Specific examples and issues pertaining to user roles and permissions will also address multiple permissions for roles. 5/7/2015 3:30­4:30 Schoolnet and OpenClass Yearend: Planning for the School Year In this webinar, you can Webinar review yearend Registration processes and best practices for planning back­to­school 2015/16. 5/21/2015 3:30­4:30 Schoolnet ­ Assessment Admin Component— Items, Passages and Rubrics. Classroom Assessments and Benchmarks What Did We Learn? In this webinar, learn from the expertise of teachers, staff and leadership experienced in the assessment side of Schoolnet as we look back and ask "What did we learn? Where can we improve?" Webinar Registration This webinar will allow you to learn from the expertise of teachers, staff and leadership experienced in the data and reporting side of Schoolnet look­back as we ask, "What did we learn? Where can we improve?" Webinar Registration 5/28/2015 3:30­4:30 School and District Data Component— Student Performance, School and District Data What Did we Learn? To view an example of a Cross­district Strategic Solutions forum, visit http://bit.ly/virtualmodeling1030​
. To download the protocol, go to: ​
http://bit.ly/cdssprotocol​
. Questions? Contact Educator Effectiveness consultant, Heather Stewart, heather.stewart@dpi.nc.gov PowerSchool ​
– ​
Q & A Open Forum Webinars The Open Forum webinars are facilitated forums, not formal presentations. The attendees can ask their scheduling questions to a panel of the NCDPI staff members. Included are the dates and registration links for June. Dates and Registration here: Friday, June 12, 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 24, 1 p.m. Register here: ​
http://bit.ly/1B65yrX ** Please note all registration information is subject to NC Public Records Law. For more information about NC SIS training and documentation, please visit our website at​
​
http://www.nc­sis.org​
. New Educator Effectiveness Online Modules Released! Self­Paced Modules don’t have to be done alone! They can be implemented in a variety of ways. We recommend professional learning communities (PLCs) incorporate the modules into their collaboration, whether online, offline, or in a hybrid format. The Professional Educator: An Ethics Guide for North Carolina Teachers State Board policy TCP­C­014 defines the code of ethics for all North Carolina educators. The purpose of this code of ethics is to set standards of professional conduct. This module reviews these standards for all teachers. This is also an essential tool for beginning teachers’ and lateral entry teachers’ growth and development. This module should take approximately 10 hours to complete and will be worth 1 CEU on completion. North Carolina Professional Teacher Standards (Updated re­release) The demands of 21st century education have required new roles for teachers in their classrooms and schools. The North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards define what teachers need to know and do to teach students in the 21st century. This module explores the teacher standards, their elements, and the rating scales for each element. The module will take approximately 10 hours to complete. Self­Paced Mini Module Video Recording in the Classroom for Self­Reflection Video is a powerful reflection tool for educators and can provide insights into classroom practice. This mini­module will provide insights, techniques and resources to help make your classroom video recordings more successful and effective. Participants can expect to spend around 30­45 minutes in this module. All modules and mini­modules are free to school districts or educators. Any public LEA or charter school in North Carolina may use the modules. For a complete list of all modules and mini­modules, visit the Educator Effectiveness Online Modules list ​
here​
. New Summer Opportunities—Facilitated Online Courses Looking for high­quality professional development and the opportunity to interact with peers? Summer is a great time to take online courses at your own pace. Below please find the list of facilitated online courses offered this summer. Registration opens June 1 and courses start Monday, June 22. Course name Digital Literacy in the Classroom (7 weeks) 1.5 CEUs Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects: Part 1 (5 weeks) 0.5 CEU Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects: Part 2 (7 weeks) 1.5 CEUs Introduction to Data Literacy ​
(5 weeks) 1 CEU Data Literacy in Action ​
(6 weeks) 1.5 CEU Introduction to Universal Design for Learning (​
4 weeks) 1 CEU Universal Design for Learning: Part 2 (4 weeks): 1 CEU st​
Connecting with our 21​
Century Learners (5 weeks) 1 CEU North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards (6 weeks) 2 CEUs Building and sustaining PD (6 weeks) 1 CEU st​
Responsibilities of the 21​
Century Educator (7 weeks) 1.0 CEUs For a full description of the courses and associated CEUs visit our website https://rt3nc.org/​
. These online courses are available at no cost​
​
to North Carolina educators and will be facilitated by the NCDPI professionals. Participants are expected to meet all weekly deadlines in order to receive CEUs. Partial credit will not be given. Registration is limited to 35 participants per section.​
​
To register, follow the instructions below to log into Home Base and self­register for a course. ● Log in to the NCEES system using your PowerSchool log in or the alternate log in https://ncees.homebase.ncpublicschools.gov/alternateLogin.html ● Click the Professional Development tab. ● Search for the course by title. ● Click on the course title. Click on the section. Click on the register button. Directions on how to register are available at​
​
http://bit.ly/1ACOUzt​
. Contact Dr. Geetanjali Soni, Educator Effectiveness, at Geetanjali.soni@dpi.nc.gov with your questions. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT What the Best North Carolina Teachers Do: A Video Series Want an insight into the strategies and techniques that award­winning North Carolina teachers use in their classrooms? The video series, “What the Best North Carolina Teachers Do,” provides you with these insights, straight from the teachers themselves! We asked district, regional and state Teachers of the Year about what makes them successful and their students soar. Among the topics addressed in the series are differentiation, classroom organization, hooking reluctant learners, advice for new teachers and more! To find out more about the project and view the interviews, participate in the mini­module through Home Base or visit the project website at ​
http://rt3nc.org/ncvideo​
. If you are interested in sharing your best practices, please contact Educator Effectiveness Web Manager, Andrew Horne, ​
Andrew.horne@dpi.nc.gov​
. Governor’s Teacher Network: Teacher­Leaders Sharing Research Across NC The Governor’s Teacher Network (GTN), composed of 425 outstanding teachers, are deep in curriculum study, writing and implementing action research at their school sites. These teachers are creating exceptional instructional unit sequences which will be hosted in Schoolnet. Additionally, GTN teachers are presenting action research projects regionally and nationally while districts are hosting GTN showcases in regional meetings. Action research projects will live in the professional development system of Home Base as online modules. Teachers also have an exciting opportunity to present their action research findings to educational leaders at NCCAT in Cullowhee for the GTN Research Symposium May 1­3. This is a great opportunity for educators across the state to learn from our teacher leaders in the field, sharing their cutting edge research findings. Check us out at CCSA during the focus sessions! For more information, contact Angela Jackson, ​
angela.jackson@dpi.nc.gov​
, director of the Governor’s Teacher Network. New District­to­District Sharing Feature is Now Available! You can now designate resources in Schoolnet at the district level as “All Districts” materials and share them among all districts in NC. As schools submit teacher work through Schoolnet for district approval, districts will now have the option to make those resources available to all other districts in the state. Resources created at the school or district level can also be shared among districts. This means you will be able to showcase and share your teachers’ and curriculum leaders’ work, not only within your own district, but across all districts in North Carolina. This option is now available, in addition to the Submit to State option as another way NC teachers and leaders can share instructional resources statewide. We hope you will take advantage of the ability to showcase the work being done in your district and the opportunity to share with your peers. To learn more, please view the archived video at http://bit.ly/1zU8uO3. Register here: http://bit.ly/1M38Nq1 Schoolnet Training Site The Schoolnet training site has more meaningful data/reports to explore and review in ​
your training efforts. Additionally, the training site offers tens of thousands of assessment items and instructional materials to support your training efforts, including these features: ➢ Each LEA and Charter School will have their own new unique set of teacher login accounts to use for training purposes and can access students and school leadership connected with their teacher. ➢ LEAs / Charter Schools will share district leadership accounts. ➢ You will now also have logins for additional role­specific users. LEAs/Charter School will share a pool of logins for scenario­based login accounts, e.g. School Library Media Coordinators, ITFs, Coaches, Teachers who have permission to create benchmarks, staff or any teacher who has ability to approve assessment items, or approve instructional materials and more. The training site will continue to be accessed at https://homebasetraining.schoolnet.com/Authentication.aspx. Then select Home Base Training District from the dropdown tab next to the “sign in with” prompt. Next, log in with your user/password. If you are a trainer in your district or charter school, please look for an email with your new login credentials. If you have any questions, please contact the Home Base Support Center at ​
homebase.incidents@its.nc.gov We encourage you to share this Update. For past issues of Home Base Biweekly Updates, please visit​
Biweekly Updates. ​
To review a library of updates from 2014, go ​
here. ***LINKS: PC users might need to press the CTRL button when clicking on a hyperlink in this document. Please contact Patricia Hickman at patty.hickman@dpi.nc.gov​
if you experience issues with newsletter links. To direct new users of Home Base to join our lists to receive the Biweekly Newsletter, go here: ​
http://listsncdpi.weebly.com/homebase­list.html To follow Home Base Alerts on Twitter, sign up​
here​
. Patricia Hickman Communications Specialist | Race to the Top NC Department of Public Instruction Communication and Information Services 6306 Mail Service Ctr | Raleigh, NC 27699­6306 P ­ ​
919.807.3451​
| F ­ ​
919.807.3481